Salisbury's Tatum gearing up for another golden finish

Falcons senior, a returning state champ, is having a solid season.

February 07, 2013

The Lehigh Valley had four state champion swimmers last year: Freedom's Seth Watlington, Central Catholic's Sydney Stinner, Emmaus' Taylor O'Brien and Salisbury's Eric Tatum. Only Tatum returned to high school competition this year as the other three have graduated and moved on to collegiate competition.

Tatum, now a senior, has continued his success. With the Falcons dominating the top times in boys Class 2A this year, Tatum holds five individual marks and is part of at least two of the three top relay times.

"I'm definitely swimming better than last year," Tatum said. "Every year it's just about getting in better shape and getting stronger. The big change from last year to this year is working on the technical things. My turns are faster, underwater kicks are stronger. We've been working on the small technical aspects a lot."

"Turns have been weak for me," he continued. "So during my junior year and this year I've been trying to work on it. As a freshman and sophomore it was where I was weakest and where people were passing me. Towards the end of last year and this year I've started to turn that around. Now I'm passing people on the walls rather than the other way around."

Tatum hasn't yet found where he will swim collegiately. He has been accepted by Pittsburgh, but also has applications out to Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, the University of Rochester and West Point.

He's been accepted at Pitt, and hopes to hear from Army, his top choice, toward the end of February. All the coaches have said there is a spot on the team if he makes it into the school.

"... Rather than just swim I'll do something useful for my country," Tatum said of possibly attending West Point.

He began swimming competitively with the Trident club as a six-year old during summer competition.

"My mother (Diane Roberts-Tatum) was the head coach for Trident when I began swimming," he said. "The age group coach I had when I was [in the eight-and-under class] was Michael Ragran. Then 9-10 I actually had [current Salisbury coach] Jason Reinhard as my coach. It all comes full circle and back to Trident."

Reinhard replaced former Salisbury coach Ryan Hume this year.

"I think initially you're worried about a new coach, especially this year because we have a large senior class," Tatum said. "One of our biggest hopes is to be able to score points at states. I think the transition has been nice. Even though the coaching style is very different, it's helpful because Jason works on some of the things that Ryan didn't and vice versa. Distance and aerobic training under Ryan was more important, where Jason is focusing more on the sprinters. I think that's kind of evened itself out."

While the season has been going very well for Tatum so far, push comes to shove on March 1 and 2 at Parkland for District 11 championships. The 2A state meet will be held at Bucknell March 15-16.